I am getting mixed advice on how to adjust my parking/emergency brake on my 2007 Dodge Durango. Right now, my parking brake pedal travels all the way to the floor. It does hold the vehicle on shallow inclines but it will not hold the vehicle on steep inclines or with a trailer attached on modest inclines. I know the parking brake is a drum brake and that there is a star wheel that can be accessed at the back of the rotor to adjust the shoe to drum clearance. I am also aware that the pedal is attached to a "tensioner" device with an adjustment nut on it. The conflicting information I am seeing in the Internet is that some people say to adjust the tensioner and others say that the tensioner should only be adjusted if a cable is replaced and the only way to adjust is by using the star wheel. For someone out there that knows for sure, which method is "correct". It seems logical that I just need to take some slack up in the cable, but maybe that is not how it is done? Are the parking brakes supposed to be "self adjusting" like most vehicles are that are equipped with drum brakes as primary brakes? Or do parking brake shoes like this always have to be manually adjusted with the star wheel? Hoping someone can help because I don't like parking on a boat ramp with a boat unless the parking brake can hold it...puts unnecessary stress on the tranny.

 

are the rear brakes disc or drum?
the cable should not need to be adusted and unless the cable replaced. If the brake shoes are replaced and not set up properly...ie. correct clearance...you will have a deep throw on the pedal as the shoes have to far to move to contact the drum/rotor hat.

the first step is to make sure the shoe to drum/rotor hat clearance is correct. If it is and the ebrakes don't hold...then go to the cable adjuster.

any automatic ebrake adjuster is not designed to take up large clearances from being set up wrong.